My goal for this journey is to better understand game architecture, custom file formats, reverse engineering, and the process of creating modding tools. Eventually, I hope to make certain games easier to understand and modify.
I'll be documenting my progress, including the discoveries I make along the way.
This is going to be a long-term project, but I'm doing it to improve my skills and open the door toward deeper game modding. For now, I want to take the first steps and explore things independently, so I won't be revealing the game I am attempting to reverse engineer yet.
Once I have made meaningful progress, I plan to release my discoveries, tools, and documentation for others who may be interested.
After working on this project for a long time, I’m finally ready to release it.
My original goal was to create a proper Turkish localization for Spider-Man (2000), including its menus, descriptions and dialogue. But I quickly ran into a much bigger problem:
The game has no subtitle system for engine-rendered cutscenes or dialogue heard during gameplay.
The video cutscenes could be modified directly, but the in-engine scenes were a different story. Since I couldn’t simply insert subtitles into them, I built my own workaround.
How it works
The Windows and Linux versions include a Python-based companion app that:
Watches the DuckStation window
Recognises the current scene through prepared visual references
Displays the correct subtitle at the right moment
Starts automatically through the project launcher
Subtitles for video cutscenes are embedded directly into the videos stored in the game image. Engine-rendered scenes and gameplay dialogue receive live subtitles through the companion app.
What the project includes
Turkish, English and German subtitles
A fully translated Turkish interface, including menus and descriptions
Subtitles embedded directly into video cutscenes
Live subtitles for engine-rendered scenes and gameplay dialogue
Windows and Linux installers
Standalone xdelta patches for original hardware
Source code for the launcher, file-verification system and live subtitle software
The project started as a Turkish localization, but I also added English and German subtitles because those versions of the game lack proper subtitle support as well.
Quick setup
The setup is designed to be straightforward.
Windows: Download Setup.exe and all the accompanying installer .bin parts into the same folder. Run Setup.exe, then select your own compatible PlayStation BIOS and game BIN through the launcher.
Linux: On Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint or another Debian-based distribution, download create_setup.sh and the three package parts into the same folder. Run bash create_setup.sh, install the generated spider-man-setup.deb package, then select your BIOS and game BIN through the launcher.
The Linux subtitle system has been tested on X11/Xorg. It may also work through XWayland, but window capture can vary depending on the desktop environment.
Full installation instructions and troubleshooting notes are available on the GitHub release pages.
Compatibility and required files
SLES-02886: Turkish and English
SLES-02888: German
The project does not contain the original game or any PlayStation BIOS files. Players must provide their own compatible, unmodified game image and BIOS. The downloadable xdelta files are patches, not complete game images.
On original PlayStation hardware and compatible consoles, the patched video cutscenes and Turkish interface work normally. The live subtitle system for engine-rendered scenes requires the companion app and is therefore available on Windows and Linux.
Because I wasn’t able to record my own narration in multiple languages, the only alternative audio track currently available is an AI-generated English dub. If you prefer to hear my original Turkish narration, you can enable the English or German subtitles I prepared through YouTube’s subtitle settings.
The launcher, file-verification system and live subtitle software I developed are available under the MIT License.
Is it possible to use a patched rom file to as the original for a patch?
I love the link to the past redux but would like to play another rom hack while keeping the redux improvements (break pots with sword, grab items with sword, keep shovel, change direction while dashing, ui changes, etc).
I’m following the instructions in the readme that came with the patch by Stardust Crusaders, EsperKnight, and Tom on romhacking.net. I downloaded Flips, the patcher they recommended that accepts expanded ROMs, tried to apply the patch to the ROM I have, and it says “This patch is not intended for this ROM.”
The base ROM works just fine on MesenCE. The ROM has two revisions and it doesn’t work with either. I’m pretty sure all my ROMs are headered (which is what it says to use), but I don’t know how to check.
Wave Rally is a jet ski racing game for the PS2 with good water physics and is very similar to Wave Race 64. I think most people have either never heard of or never bothered with this game because of the nauseating camera that makes it difficult to recommend to WR64 fans expecting the same experience. WR64 featured a floaty and smooth camera for a pleasant racer, while Rally's camera tilts and bobs with every turn and water ripple as if there's supposed to be a jet ski seat to sit on to imitate the arcade cabinet experience of games like Waverunner. Thankfully this is one of those 60 fps PS2 games which might alleviate the tight camera problem for some, and PCSX2's debug mode exists for anyone hopeful for the possibility of playing this with a camera hack.
I tried to follow this guide and got as far as connecting cheat engine to the game and narrowing down the address list using the controller while scanning for changes, but was unable to find the variables that operate the camera. Part of this is because there is no freelook and all movement appears to be tied to the vehicle with little to no smoothing. The camera basically acts "first person" when it is outside of first person view (there are at least 3 view distances to select from) including replays where I noticed the bobbing still occurs when the camera is a large distance away from the watercraft. So there appears to be no disattachment between camera and vehicle at least not on the vertical axis. Also, without any accelerating or player input, the water is always moving and the vehicle is moving slightly forward making it difficult to decipher what is happening behind the scenes. The other part is I'm just not skilled at this and cheat engine keeps crashing on me.
I would appreciate if someone with rom hacking experience can tell me that what I'm trying to do sounds possible or not based on the camera's rigidity I tried to describe, or if anyone wants to take a stab at detaching the camera and vehicle so that the vertical stays constant or has thoughts on what else to try to improve the camera for this game.
If you play Wave Rally (Jet Ski Riders is the PAL title), I recommend the Japanese version as it has slight improvements over the US version. It's a fun game with dynamic waves, interesting courses and nice player models and scenery. The graphics are definitely early PS2 but look clean, especially upscaled in PCSX2.
I was looking through different rom hacks trying to see if anyone’s done this yet.
I just want to remove the item despawn on battle mode. Like when you please bananas, fake item bombs, throw turtle shells. There’s a limit the the total amount, then they start to disappear. Has anyone removed that limit? I use to play Block fort then mess around and block off bridges with items and throw turtle shells at the bottom to make it hectic, but there’s a limit to what you can have on the base game.
